A strip club in Albany, N.Y., is trying to avoid paying a $124,000 tax bill by asking the state's highest court to rule nude dancing is an art form and therefore tax exempt.

Nite Moves was slapped with the bill following a 2005 audit, with tax officials claiming taxes are owed on the club's admission and "couch sales," meaning lap dances, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

And now the New York State Supreme Court has to decide whether nude dancing qualifies as "live dramatic or musical arts performances," that's exempt from taxes in the same way as theater or ballet.

An administrative law judge previously ruled in the club's favor, saying "the fact that the dancers remove all or part of their costume ... simply does not render such dance routines as something less than choreographed performances," the AP reported.

But the state Tax Appeals Tribunal didn't buy it, citing the fact that Nite Moves' dancers aren't required to have any formal training and that the club's star witness, a cultural anthropologist who visited the establishment, didn't see any of the private dances.

Oral arguments are set to being Wednesday. The high court is expected to issue a decision in about a month.